This invention relates to tubeless tires, and more particularly to a novel tool for spreading the sidewalls of a tire, while mounted on a rim, in order to achieve access to a runflat device mounted on the rim within the tire.
In recent years a variety of so-called runflat devices, or tire safety liners, have been developed to prevent the destruction of an inflated tire when it becomes deflated during the operation of an associated vehicle. One such safety device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,393,911, which is assigned to the same assignee as the present application. The device disclosed in this particular patent includes a flexible, generally C-shaped liner or bearing strip which is secured around the central section of a conventional tire rim. Secured around this bearing liner for rotation thereon, when the associated tire becomes flat, is a circular ring which is made from a sturdy, shock-resistant plastc material.
Runflat devices of the type described above are adapted to be mounted on both a two-piece vehicle rim of the type commonly employed on military vehicles and the like, as well as upon conventional, one-piece automobile tire rims of the drop center variety. This particular invention is concerned with the one-piece, drop center type of rim.
In order to mount runflat devices of the type described on a conventional automobile rim, it is necessary first to insert one side of the tire onto the rim, and then to mount the runflat device within the tire before mounting the other side of the tire on the rim. This operation creates certain difficulties, since the inboard side of the tire, which is first inserted onto the rim, tends to slide axially back toward the center of the rim during the insertion of the runflat device thus making it extremely difficult for an operator or mechanic to gain access to the space surrounding the rim. There is a need, therefore, for some type of instrument to restrain axial movement of the inboard side of the tire during the insertion of a runflat device onto the rim.
It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide a relatively simple and inexpensive device for releasably restraining the inboard side of a tubeless tire against axial movement on an automotive rim during the installation of an associated runflat device.
Another object of this invention is to provide a tool of the type described which can be adjusted to fit a variety of tire rims of different sizes, and which is extremely simple to install on and remove from a drop center type of rim.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a tool of the type described which functions not only to hold the inboard side of tire stationary during use, but is operable also to engage and draw the outboard side of a tire away from an associated rim to gain ready access to the annular space surrounding the rim inside of the tire.
Other objects of the invention will be apparent hereinafter from the specification, and from the recital of the appended claims, particularly when read in conjunction with accompanying drawings.